The tray boys in about 1937 running past what was later the Trudeau, N.Y. U.S. Post Office with a Mrs. Slattery as Postmaster. (Courtesy of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library)

Last week, we covered the closing of Trudeau in December 1954 with the loss of 200 jobs to the Saranac Lake community.

The “San” had operated for 70 years and was known throughout the world as the best place to cure the then-dreaded disease of tuberculosis.

The information and photos carried here are the courtesy of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. There were no bylines on any of the stories. The Enterprise, owned and published by Jim Loeb and Roger Tubby, had been bought only the year before.

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Notes on the history of Trudeau

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“Trudeau Sanatorium was founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau in 1884, but the real beginning occurred in 1865 when Dr. Trudeau’s brother, Francis, died of tuberculosis. E. L. Trudeau had taken care of his brother during the many months he lay ill in New York. No precaution was taken against infection as it was not known at the time what caused or spread the disease.

“Windows were never opened and the only treatment was the administration of various cough medicines. His brother’s death was Dr. Trudeau’s first experience with tuberculosis and his first great sorrow and at this time sowed the seed of a fervent sympathy that he always felt for the tuberculosis.

“In 1873 Dr. Trudeau himself contracted tuberculosis. In those days such a diagnosis meant certain death and he resolved to spend his last days in the Adirondack Mountains hunting and fishing. He went by train from New York to Saratoga, spent the night there, and continued to Whitehall the next day. Then by boat through Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh and by narrow gauge railroad to AuSable Forks. Finally came the jolting 42-mile stage ride over the rough road to Paul Smith’s. On his arrival he was carried upstairs to his bed by the guide, Fred Martin, who made the now famous remark, ‘Why, Doctor, you don’t weigh no more than a dried lamb skin.’

“After three years at Paul Smith’s, Dr. Trudeau moved to Saranac Lake where he was joined by his family. He rented the Reuben Reynold’s house where the Adirondack National Bank now stands (then 72 Main Street). During the Winter of 1876, Dr. Trudeau began his first subscription drive to raise money. His family missed having any place for Sunday worship and the little log cabin chapel, St. John’s in-the-Wilderness, at Paul Smith’s, was made possible through the donations of Dr. Trudeau’s friends. The chapel burned in 1927 and was rebuilt of stone. Under the tall pines in the church yard, Dr. Trudeau and three of their children are buried.

“Dr. Trudeau began to gain in health and started his medical practice in Saranac Lake. News of Dr. Trudeau’s success in prolonging his own life and more and more patients were referred to him. The patients spent the Winter in the guide’s cottages. Patients began to arrive in greater numbers and the well-to-do could rent cottages but there were many invalids who had no place to stay.

“Dr. Trudeau had read of a new treatment for tuberculosis being tried in Germany, namely rest, open air and exercise under medical supervision. His desire to help the many patients coming to Saranac Lake took active form his idea to start in a modest way a sanatorium here in the region where he himself had so benefited. His friends, the Adirondack guides and local citizens, contributed money for the purchase of a sheltered spot on the side of Mt. Pisgah — his favorite fox runway. They purchased ten acres at $25 an acre.

“Here in 1884, the first cottage sanatorium in the United States was built. ‘Little Red’ received its first patients in May 1885, when two working girls became its occupants.

“Other cottages for needy tuberculosis patients followed in mushroom succession as Dr. Trudeau’s many friends began contributing to his work.

“The ‘Adirondack Cottage Sanatarium’ was incorporated January 21, 1889. The name was not changed to Trudeau Sanatorium until after Dr. Trudeau’s death in 1915.

“In 1885 Dr. Trudeau began his own experiments in the field of research. He had recently read Koch’s ‘The Etiology of Tuberculosis’ revealing the startling fact that the disease was caused by a germ. He went to New York, where he learned how to stain the tubercle bacillus. On his return to Saranac Lake, he inoculated guinea pigs and first obtained a pure culture of the tubercle bacillus in his home-made laboratory in a corner of his house in Church Street.

“In 1883, the original laboratory and Dr. Trudeau’s home were completely burned when his home-made thermostat caught fire. The following year his friend, George C. Cooper, presented Dr. Trudeau with a new,, fireproof laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis, which stands today next to the Trudeau house on the corner of Main and Church streets.”

Historic Saranac Lake, under the dynamic leadership of Amy Catania, has used, restored, given history tours and held many civic meetings in that laboratory.

The big news, of course, is the restoration of the beautiful, original Trudeau home into a museum that will have a grand opening in 2025.